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Dalek (TV story)
Dalek 'is the sixth episode the first series of ''Doctor Who. It was written by Robert Shearman, directed by Joe Ahearne and featured Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler. Overview To be added Synopsis Beneath the Salt Plains of Utah, the billionaire collector Henry van Statten holds the last relic of an alien race. When the Doctor and Rose, they discover the Doctor's oldest and most deadly enemy is about to break free. It's a fight to the death with Rose caught in the middle. Plot The TARDIS lands in a darkened hallway; the Doctor and Rose promptly step out with the Doctor confused as to the origin of the signal that drew the TARDIS to Utah, 2012. Flicking on a light switch, the two find themselves surrounded by a mass of alien artifacts in display cases. Realising they've landed in an alien museum, they look through the exhibits, including some meteors, the milometer from the Roswell Spacecraft, a stuffed Slitheen's arm and the helmet of a creature the Doctor sadly recognises as an old enemy. When he places his fingers on the case, an alarm goes off and they are immediately apprehended by armed guards. The head of the museum, Henry van Statten is lead to his office by an armed entourage, firing one of his staff on a whim, and he orders his assistant Dianna Goddard to arrange for him to see his "little pet" while his English researcher Adam takes him to examine some new artifacts. Goddard calls down to the vault to talk to Simmons about getting van Statten's "pet" to talk, but he admits he's only succeeded in making it scream. While Adam is showing van Statten the new items, security drags the Doctor and Rose into his office. After the Doctor explains one of the new items to him, van Statten questions him about how he got in and what he was doing. Fascinated by the Doctor's claims of greater knowledge, he orders Goddard to call Simmons and tell him that they and the Doctor are going down to the cage, which contains his only living specimen and tells Adam to keep an eye on Rose. Down in the cage, van Statten informs the Doctor that in spite of being unable to make it speak or do anything significant, they know it's alive and he ushers the Doctor inside to see if he can make any headway. After being sealed inside, the Doctor notices a slew of surgical tools and offers his apologies and help to the creature. But as soon as he gives it his name, the creature recognizes him and the lights come on to reveal to a horrified Doctor that van Statten's "Metaltron" is a Dalek. He begs to be let out as the Dalek attempts to exterminate him; however, to the Doctor's delight, it's weapon is non-functional. Joyously, the Doctor taunts the Dalek, calling it's purposeless without the ability to kill and demands to know what it's doing there. The Dalek says that it's awaiting orders and the Doctor enthusiastically tells it that it will never receive orders as he'd destroyed the Dalek race. However, the Dalek soon turns table and discovers that the Doctor destroying the Daleks also saw the end of the Time Lords and it calls them the same. Infuriated, the Doctor initially refutes this but then jumps at the chance to deliver a strong electric shot through it's chains in an attempt to kill it. Van Statten, who had been watching the exchange from outside and hears the Dalek's plea for mercy, orders security to drag the Doctor out. They burst into the cage, shut off the electricity and pull the Doctor away while van Statten orders the Dalek to speak to him, but it returns to it's state of silence. Before departing, van Statten orders Simmons to get the Dalek to talk again, whatever it takes. In Adam's workshop, Rose looks around the alien artifacts the van Statten allows Adam to keep around as he didn't want them. After a brief moment between them, Rose asks after van Statten's pet and Adam patches into the cameras in the vault where they watch Simmons continue to torture the Dalek. Unable to stand it, Rose asks Adam to take her down to the vault. Elsewhere, the Doctor explains his history with the Daleks as well as his Time Lord origins and the fate of both races at the conclusion of the Last Great Time War. Realising the Doctor is the last of his kind, van Statten has him chained up while he enacts a painful scan on him, discovering his Binary Vascular System. The Doctor is shocked that van Statten is a scavenger as well as a collector as well as by his story of how he's extensively abused the technology he's found. Attempting to appeal to his better nature, the Doctor warns him about the Dalek and what it can do if it's not destroyed, that it will kill everybody on the base, but van Statten remains assured that it's safely contained and continues the scans. Meanwhile, Adam gets Rose past security and into the cage to see the Dalek. She approaches it and offers to help it, growing sympathetic towards it after it admits to being in pain and appearing despondent that it will die alone in the universe. It tells her that it's glad that it met someone who did not fear it before it died when Rose, against Adam's warning, places the palm of her hand on it's dome. When she does, it absorbs a form of radiation off of her hand and this causes it to regenerate itself and break free of it's restraints. Simmons storms into the cage and confronts the Dalek, but it grasps him with it's plunger arm and crushes his face, killing him. Rose and Adam flee the cage and the base is put on emergency lockdown. Hearing the alarms from the scan room, the Doctor orders van Statten to release him if he values his life. Rushing to van Statten's office, he, the Doctor and Goddard watch the Dalek leave it's cell, forcing all personnel to retreat with Rose and Adam. The Dalek then proceeds to destroy a computer terminal and absorb all the power in the base and the West Coast of the United States to regenerate itself to full strength when it regains it's firepower. While the guards escort Rose and Adam to safety, they prepare to face the Dalek on all side. However, when they fire on it, the bullets evaporate before even touching it's casing. Before long, the Dalek had slaughtered all the guards using it's 360-degree field of fire, all the while van Statten orders them not to damage the Dalek. While the Doctor, van Statten and Goddard look at the carnage in shock, the Dalek presses on. The Doctor and Goddard track it's path heading through weapons testing and the Doctor orders everybody to be armed. Rose, Adam and the remaining guard, De Maggio, make it to a stairwell and climb it, thinking it unable to follow. The Dalek follows them into the stairwell, where De Maggio attempts to reason with it, claiming that the mistreatment of it was wrong and that an agreement can be met. However, the Dalek activates it's hover mode and starts flying up the stairs. De Maggio orders Adam to get Rose to safety while she stays behind to try and slow the Dalek down; after the others have fled, however, the Dalek shoots her dead. In van Statten's office, the Doctor draws up strategies on how to deal with the Dalek's advance; van Statten still believes that it can be reasoned with if they give it what it wants, but the Doctor tells him bluntly that the only thing the Dalek wants is to kill all living things that are different, honestly believing that they should die, before he reprimands him for turning it loose. In the weapons testing room, the survivors all take up arms at the Doctor's instruction and ready to face the Dalek. Rose and Adam soon hurry through the line of fire before the Dalek follows them. The Doctor tells the guards to aim for the Dalek's eyestalk, but they disregard his warning. As the Dalek advances, everybody opens fire, but just as before, the bullets make no damage on the Dalek. While the Doctor, van Statten and Goddard watch on the monitors, the Dalek sets off the fire sprinklers and fires are the sodden floors, sending an electric shock through the waters that kill everybody standing in it. Focusing it's attention on the cameras, the Dalek demands to speak with the Doctor, with whom it explains that it was regenerated by absorbing the DNA of a time traveller, which it took from Rose's handprint. It also admits that it's been hacking the planet's tracking equipment to locate the Daleks, only to find nothing, meaning that the Doctor's claims of it being the last Dalek are true. With no orders to come, it declares it's intention to follow through with the Daleks' main purpose to destroy and conquer. Horrified and disgusted, the Doctor opts instead to gives it the order to kill itself. In spite of the Dalek's protests, the Doctor demands it follow through, "rid the universe of Daleks' filth" and that "should just die!". The Dalek then insidiously tells the Doctor that's he'd make a good Dalek before it breaks communication. Stunned and shocked, the Doctor orders van Statten, who had managed to reroute emergency power to vault's bulkhead doors, to seal it down there. Knowing Rose is still in the vault, the Doctor calls Rose and tells her to hurry to level 46 where the bulkheads are being sealed. With the power failing though, he is forced to seal them while they still have time; Adam manages to make it out of the vault before the bulkheads seal but Rose doesn't, trapping her with the advancing Dalek. Awaiting her death, Rose tells the Doctor not to feel guilty about it before the Dalek fires. Flooded with grief, the Doctor venomously blames van Statten for the events that have transpired since he stopped him killing the Dalek in the cage. Back in the vault, Rose, still alive, is still pinned by the Dalek, but when asked why it won't kill her, it starts to experience emotional conflict and starts doubting itself. Adam arrives in van Statten's office as soon as the Dalek opens a security feed and orders the bulkhead opened. The Doctor is relieved that Rose is alive and she pleads with him not to free the Dalek, but it uses his apparent feeling for Rose to force his complacency and he opens the bulkhead. Aware the Dalek make kill the when it arrives, Adam takes the Doctor to his workshop in search of a weapon to kill it with. Heading to van Statten's office, the Dalek's internal conflict continues to confuse it. When it arrives, it demands to know why van Statten tortured it; van Statten tries blithering out various excuses but ultimately admits that he just wanted it to talk. The Dalek readies itself to kill him, but Rose stops it and asks what it really wants. After looking at van Statten, it tells Rose that it wants freedom. As the Doctor rushes to the top level, the Dalek takes Rose there ahead of him and blasts a hole in the ceiling, allowing it access to the sunlight. Wanting to know how sunlight feels, the Dalek opens it's casing to allow it's mutant self to experience it. While Rose is awestruck, the Doctor appears behind her brandishing a large weapon and demands she move out of the way. However, Rose refuses to move and makes him look at the Dalek, how it's changed and how it's changing him. Letting his fury fade, the Doctor observes that absorbing Rose's DNA is what changed the Dalek and is causing a mutation into something new and different. The Dalek sees this change as contamination and declares that it won't become like Rose and it requests she order it's self-destruction. Before it goes, it admits to being as frightened as Rose, before it reseals it's causing and, using the spheres in it's shell, implodes itself before Rose and the shocked Doctor. Outside, Goddard has another team of guards arrest van Statten for his role in the deaths of 200 personnel and orders him to be abandoned with his memory wipe as his ironic punishment. Rose and the Doctor return to the TARDIS when Adam runs up and tells them that the base is due to be filled in with cement. While the Doctor suggests that he head back to England, Rose cryptically asks if he could come with them and the Doctor reluctantly relents before they step into the TARDIS, followed by a confused Adam as they dematerialise. Cast * Doctor Who - Christopher Eccleston * Rose Tyler - Billie Piper * Polkowski - Steven Beckingham * Henry van Statten - Corey Johnson * Goddard - Anna-Louise Plowman * Adam - Bruno Langley * Simmons - Nigel Whitmey * Bywater - John Schwab * De Maggio - Jana Carpenter * Commander - Joe Montana * Dalek Operator - Barnaby Edwards * Dalek Voice - Nicholas Briggs Crew To be added References To be added Story Notes To be added Continuity To be added Home video and audio releases To be added External Links * Official ''Dalek'' page on '''Doctor Who Website